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V RICE F I F T E E N C E N T S . 



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PHILOSOPHY OF 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES: 



A VISION. 




BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

Author of " Nature's Divine Revelations" fyc. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST 



BOSTON: 
BELA MARSH, .25 CORNHILL 

1850. 



.£ A 



THE 



PHILOSOPHY 



OF 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES: 



A VISION 



W 



BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS. 

AUTHOR OF "NATURE'S DIVINE REVELATIONS," &C. 



J)ttblisl}£& b£ Ueqnzst. 









BOSTON: 

BELA MARSH, No. 25 CORNHILL. 

1850. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



STEREOTYPED BY 

HOBART & ROBBINS: 

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY, 

BOSTON. 



PREFACE. 



If the reader will but imagine himself to be addressed by- 
Truth, as my Guide addressed me. he may receive much 
good, and many suggestions, by carefully examining the fol- 
lowing pages. They contain two Visions, and an Argument. 

The first vision placed me in that moral and intellectua T 
position which the professed believers in supernatural mira- 
cles and special providences generally occupy; — that is, it 
made me see with the eyes and through the opinions of those 
who base their faith and hope upon superficial perception and 
human testimony. The second vision enabled me to examine 
the seeming miracles and special providences, which are 
recorded in the Bible and elsewhere, through the pure medi- 
ums of Nature and Reason. But the argument is addressed 
to the Understanding. 

An honest, unprejudiced, impartial state of mind is abso- 
lutely indispensable to a proper perception and comprehension 
of divine Truth. In this mental condition, and in no other, it 
is good to commence and pursue the present inquiry. 

The Author. 



THE VISIONS 



ARE THERE SPECIAL PROVIDENCES? 

This interesting and important interrogatory re- 
vives in my soul a multitude of the most impressive 
meditations — visions so solemn and gorgeous as to 
revolutionize the deepest feelings, and expand the 
best conceptions to limits undefinable. The impres- 
sion was too perfectly and forcibly imparted for me 
to ever disremember the time when I was made to 
realize what the majority of the world (especially the 
Christian world) believe concerning Divine interpo- 
sition. My mind had been exercised many days upon 
the subject under consideration. The world-wide 
interesting problem, Whether there had been, or were now, 
supernatural interpositions among men, for the purpose of 
changing, reversing, or regulating human affairs and de- 
signs, was agitating my spirit almost continually ; and 
I well remember the circumstances which attended 
its final examination and settlement. And let me 
here express — what I cannot but feel — the wish that 
every inquiring mind could be enriched with a similar 
revelation. I know, to the depths of my soul, that it 
would emancipate the individual from the slavery of 
ignorance, superstition, and bigotry. 

It was the last* day of the beautiful month of June 
when I received an authoritative impression, from the 
interior life, to ascend the summit of a high but familiar 
1* 



mountain. My native village (by adoption) was visible 
at a distance on the opposite side of the river. This 
mountain was my usual retreat ; nothing was there to 
disturb — but all outer things, the solitude, the stillness 
only broken by the song of birds, and the scenery, were 
conducive to spiritual development, elevation, and vis- 
ion. Upon this mount, and at this time, my spirit, in 
its accustomed manner, was enabled to subdue and 
subordinate the body to itself, and my interior princi- 
ples of perception were opened, and were permitted 
their easy and natural exercise. The problem to 
be solved was resting heavily upon me ; and that in- 
numerably diversified and mountain-high accumulation 
of individual biographies — unphilosophically termed 
personal and national history — were presented as the 
materials by which I was to be made to realize the 
general belief in a partial Providence, and the influ- 
ence of such doctrine. 

I saw the wide-spread Earth — its entire surface! 
It is easy to converse about the Earth, its dimensions, 
its scenery, and possessions — but it is not easy to 
grasp a realizing conception of its magnitude and 
appearance. When the mind beholds, at a glance, a 
conglobated accumulation of matter, twenty-five thou- 
sand miles in circumference ; and, instead of a single 
great city densely inhabited, nine hundred millions of 
living human individuals ; I say, when the mind beholds 
all this overwhelming combination of spirit and matter, 
the little material and space it itself requires as one 
individual, is enough to beget conceptions of its own 
weakness and insignificance. 

When this view was given me, I ceased wondering 
that the inhabitants of original Central America once 



believed their local habitation to be the centre of the 
universe, and themselves the favorites of presiding 
gods. Yes, I ceased wondering at, or blaming any 
people, or nation, for believing the Earth to be the 
masterpiece of divine creation, and themselves under 
the special and immediate control of various divinities. 

Down, down the rugged declivities and towering 
pyramids of Humanity's History were my interior per- 
ceptions directed ; and I beheld the many and differ- 
ent events and circumstances which were and are 
referred to the supernatural or miraculous interpo- 
sitions of an invisible but especially overseeing Provi- 
dence. 

I saw approach, even to the margin of an awful 
precipice, a man whose mind had been, for many 
years, deranged ; he fell over the brink, and was 
arrested, by some imperceptible cause, on his down- 
ward way ; rescued, by his affrighted friends, from 
this perilous situation, he was found to be unhurt ; and 
from that hour, henceforth, he was sane and well. 
The wise men and soothsayers of the city pronounced 
his escape " an instance of the special interference of the 
Lord." 

I saw, situated upon the side of the sea, a beautiful 
village, whose people were accomplished in the science 
of agriculture. The sky blackened, the earth trem- 
bled, the ground opened, and several villages, and 
two opulent cities, were shaken and sundered into 
pieces ; but the beautiful village remained wholly 
unmoved and unchanged. The priests said, " It was 
a manifestation of the judgment and justice of the great 
Jehovah/ ' 

I saw, standing before a splendid tribunal of Knights 



8 

Templars, a female, clad in the garments of condem- 
nation and death ; she was tried for sedition and con- 
spiracy ; the judgment was rendered against her ; and 
she was harshly conveyed to the Inquisitorial Hall for 
execution ; the executioner placed her head upon the 
block, uplifted the sword — and, lo ! the terrific light- 
ning struck him to the earth : the temple was set on 
fire, and scarce a person escaped unhurt except the 
falsely convicted female, who was thus saved. The 
people said, " It was the judgment and interposition of 
Jehovah." 

I saw a great and spiritually enlightened Reformer, 
Jesus, condemned for heresy, and for rebelling against 
the prevailing opinions and institutions of his age and 
country ; the cross was erected, his body was nailed 
to it ; the conquerors rejoiced in their supposed vic- 
tory; and his few friends and disciples were convulsed 
with grief. The blackened heavens frowned upon 
the deed ; the voice of the thunders was heard ; the 
city was engulfed in darkness ; the bursting earth- 
quake rent the temple from its towering heights even 
to its foundation; the rocks opened their yawning 
mouths; and consternation was great and universal 
among the people. The followers and disciples of the 
martyr, young and old, male and female, said, "It 
was the disapproval of the omnipotent God." 

I saw, giving in his oath falsely, a man, Ananias, 
Avho had disposed of some property for more money 
than he claimed to have received therefor ; and while 
vehemently affirming, upon his honor and all sacred 
things, that he had not done what, in truth, he did do, 
his lips trembled, his eyes started wildly from their 
sockets, and he fell dead> in the presence of his ques- 



tioners, — a perjured and self-condemned man. The 
public voice said, "It was a direct and immediate 
manifestation of the judgment of God." 

I saw an abused and long enslaved people, marshalled 
together according to the directions of an educated 
chieftain, (Moses,) leave an Egyptian city, and cross, 
on comparatively dry land, a river which was parted 
in an extraordinary manner ; the enslaver, Pharaoh, 
and his army, pursued this adventurous band, with the 
unrighteous design of re-capturing them ; he led his 
armed hosts upon the dry land at the division of the 
waters, but the waves instantaneously embraced each 
other, and the king and his splendid army were as 
suddenly overwhelmed and destroyed. The victorious 
multitude, thus escaped from slavery, and from a grave 
in the bosom of the mighty tide, said, " The Lord had 
exercised special judgment and justice in the earth." 

I saw, attired in the habiliments of wealth, and resid- 
ing in a costly mansion, an individual afflicted with divers 
and painful diseases ; disturbed slumbers, sleepless 
nights, horrid dreams, frightful pains and palpitations, 
headache, and suicidal melancholy : these were some 
of the afflictions. Physicians could do no good, nor did 
the sympathizers or prayers in churches relieve the 
pain ; and the sufferer died. The people gathered in 
the chapel, and the officiating clergyman, after admin- 
istering to the friends of the deceased the consolations 
of the Gospel, deplored this signal visitation of that 
Providence whose " ways are mysterious and past 
finding out." 

I saw a beautiful and marvellously precocious infant, 
the final response to earnest prayers sent up to God 
and the idol of its parents, die in its mother's arms : 



10 

tears were shed, and lamentations were heard, occa- 
sioned by the unexpected removal of this priceless 
jewel ; the village bell tolled the solemn knell, the 
mourners knelt in the chapel, and the priest said to 
the bereaved parents — " Providence gives and takes 
away." 

I saw, on the holy Sabbath, sailing in a pleasure- 
boat, with other youths, a boy of some fourteen years. 
His parents, especially his mother, had admonished 
him repeatedly, on the morning of that day, against the 
dangers of breaking the Sabbath ; but, instead of 
heeding their counsel or obeying their commands, he 
gathered about him associates, and sought pleasure on 
the water. A storm arose ; it increased and raged 
violently ; the boat was far from shore ; the sails were 
rent in twain ; the slight vessel w 7 as thrown upon its 
side ; the disobedient son was suddenly plunged into 
the river, and ere assistance could reach him, was 
drowned. The parents, the minister, and the people 
said, "It was a striking rebuke and dispensation of 
Providence. " 

I saw the only and much-beloved daughter of 
wealthy parents, prostrated upon a bed, suffering the 
intensest agony ; she was w 7 eeping, beseeching, pray- 
ing for relief; physicians came, and learned consult- 
ations were held ; but, though thus cared for, thus 
loved — and though hers was the flowering spring- 
time of human life — she suffered and died. The 
clergyman sought to soothe the broken-hearted 
parents by saying, that, " Though he was not in pos- 
session of those evidences of her reconciliation with God, 
which he hoped other young friends in his congrega- 
tion, being warned by this early death, might furnish 



11 

him, yet he felt assured that Providence had acted 
wisely in removing that young spirit from earthly dan- 
gers and temptations. " 

I saw wide-spread pestilences — epidemics — infec- 
tious diseases — famines — wars and national inva- 
sions. I saw cities ravaged by fire, and destroyed by 
earthquakes ; and all of these afflictions, personal and 
national, were referred to special dispensations of Prov- 
idence. Earnest and wordy prayers were uttered by 
clergymen and their congregations ; the devout sent 
up their orisons to God for " the widow and the 
fatherless in their affliction' ' — for the mariner on the 
uncertain ocean — for the coming harvest — for the 
officers of church and state ; and I beheld that the 
widow and the fatherless were mainly preserved from 
absolute destitution ; that the mariner escaped from 
the destroying power of storms ; that the harvests 
gave forth their increase, and yielded abundantly ; 
that official duties were discharged : I saw all this ; 
and was thus made to realize the force of that belief 
which makes God to preside over the wondrous 
earth, direct the lightnings, pour out the rain, and 
hold the winds in the hollow of his hand ; and to 
especially and locally bestow blessings or curses on 
human souls, designs and deeds. And it was given 
me to perceive that all these things, thus progressively 
presented to my understanding, were representations 
of numerous* and similar events and personal expe- 
riences which had occurred in the past, and were 
occurring at present, in the world. And thus I saw 
how universal was the practice or habit of referring 
extraordinary human events and circumstances, to the 
special interpositions of Providence or God. 



12 

The Scene was vast, and the Vision wonderful ! my 
soul was made to draw in, and appropriate to itself, 
a so universal belief, the exemplifications of which 
were thus presented, and I experienced the legitimate 
influence of such a profoundly sacred conviction. And 
this result seemed to be the object for which the 
vision was given me. And now the mighty earth, 
with its inhabitants and their multifarious convictions, 
receded from my view ; my spiritual perceptions 
were closed, and, in a few minutes, I was restored to 
my ordinary state. I could see nothing but myself, 
the mountain, the river, and the distant village. My 
memory was almost submerged with the wonders of 
my vision, the spirit of which had passed into my 
mind, and I experienced a greater attraction than ever 
before experienced towards mankind, their religious 
opinions, and the earth. I could not think of any 
vaster creation than an orb of twenty-five thousand 
miles in circumference, and peopled with nine hundred 
millions of separate and dissimilar individualities. It 
seemed no longer strange nor to be questioned why 
the Deity should concentrate his works thus ; why 
his Son should have left his native home, to accomplish 
great and mighty works upon the earth ; why prayers 
were necessary and efficacious ; and why especial visi- 
tations of Divine judgment and justice, vengeance and 
disapprobation, were received and believed in, by the 
more advanced multitudes of the wondfously mighty 
earth. I could understand, and perfectly sympathize 
with, those dictatorial passages in the prayer recom- 
mended by Jesus, — "Give us this day our daily 
bread," — "Forgive us our trespasses," — "Lead 
us not into temptation," — " Deliver us from evil." 



13 

Yes, I could comprehend the conviction that it is 
proper to inform God what we want, and to implor- 
ingly command him thus to gratify our individual 
desires. I could understand that, though the Deity is 
perpetually observing nine hundred millions of different 
souls, he cannot comprehend, at the same moment, 
their diversity of desires, unless verbally or orally 
informed of them ; and that he would respond accord- 
ing to the righteousness of the individual petitioning. 
In a word — I had observed instances of (so called) 
Providential interference, and viewing them, together 
with all material creations on the earth, in an exter- 
nal and superficial light, just as the majority of en- 
lightened classes view them, I was fully persuaded of 
their truth, and consequently the legitimate influence 
of such a conviction was impressed upon my mind. 

On returning from the mount to my home, I well 
remember the conflicting sensations which were de- 
veloped in me by the vision. I knew what it was to 
fear God, — I knew what it was to tremble before, and 
shrink from, a Being who, I was persuaded, could be 
influenced to exhibitions of approbation or terrible dis- 
pleasure, by individual prayers and transactions. I felt 
that I did not know what village might next be con- 
sumed by fire, or what city destroyed by earthquake. 
I could not imagine what manifestations of super- 
natural interposition were to be next developed. 
When I walked upon the hills, my soul was not 
perfectly sure that they would not fall upon, and crush 
me ; or, when a comet was announced by astronomers 
to be approaching our sun or earth, I was not confident 
that it would not, according to Divine intention, strike 
us into the oblivious depths of chaos. I had no as- 
2 



14 

surance of safety anywhere. If in the village, I was 
not sure but the Deity, because of the many and 
frequent transgressions of its inhabitants, was contem- 
plating, at that moment, its total annihilation. If on 
steamboats, or railroads, or where dark storms 
gathered over my head, I knew not but some ven- 
geance was impending — some fearful crash, or thun- 
derbolt about to fall. If where pestilential diseases 
environed, I was not sure but that destruction awaited 
the whole community, because of its corruption and 
wickedness. And now it was easy to believe in 
the chimeras of Millerism, — it was possible to believe 
that this great mass of matter, twenty -five thousand miles 
in circumference, was to be literally dissolved and con- 
sumed by fire, — that millions would be crushed by 
falling mountains, and millions would ascend, through 
roofs and any material obstructions, to meet the Lord 
in the air. Yes, I was, for five days, in the secrets of 
my own heart, a forced believer in such literal mani- 
festations of Divine intention. I was ready for, and 
would not have been surprised to hear, the thundering 
sound of that awful trumpet which was to awake 
millions to everlasting happiness, and millions to end- 
less misery ! 

In truth, this universal conflagration of Nature was 
now not so much a source of surprise to me, as was the 
apparent indifference, manifested by the greater portion 
of mankind, with regard to this impending event, in 
connection with the received opinion of the suscep- 
tibility of God to be influenced by human action and 
prayer. All acknowledge that "the prayers of the 
righteous are answered ;" but why human actions did 
not correspond to (what seemed to me to be) the 



15 

most awful and terrific convictions possible to conceive 
of, was a profound mystery. Clergymen and laymen 
recognized this belief in their theology ; but their 
practices were so divorced from their theories and 
professed belief, that I could not resist the impression 
that their actions gave the lie to their convictions. 

It was now just six days since the foregoing change 
had been wrought in my mind ; and my countenance, 
the index of the spirit, showed the withering effects of 
such convictions. I walked the pathless meadows in 
the vicinity of the village, and meditated upon the 
awful but sublime disclosures made to me on the 
mountain's summit. I contemplated the ways of God 
— what he had done for mankind ; how he had been, 
and was continually, importuned, invoked, com- 
manded. Again and agaia I thought of the nine 
hundred millions of inhabitants ; and how national and 
personal individuality had been marvellously preserved 
in the midst of the ten thousand surrounding and 
absorbing influences ; and how myriads and myriads 
had appeared upon the stage of the world's vast 
theatre, acted some particular part in the universal 
drama or tragedy of life, then made their exit, to live 
and act, upon another stage, an eternal repetition of good 
or evil. And then I contemplated poverty, destitution* 
and crime, — how well do I remember this soul-chilling 
contemplation ! 

Now the day was drawing to a close, and the sun 
was setting gloriously in the west, — Nature seemed 
to smile, and to pantomime the indications of joy. I 
had wandered to a retired spot, and had seated 
myself beneath the clustering foliage of some luxuriant 
trees, and there the local development of previous 



16 

conflicts and disturbances came forth from my soul in 
the form of interrogatories, and an invocation to God, 
whom, with every faculty fatigued and subdued, I thus 
addressed : Our Father who art in heaven, (for thus I 
am told to address thee,) who hearkeneth to the pray- 
ers of thy children, and who answereth the solicita- 
tions of the righteous; I beseech thee grant me 
audience. Justified by the example of those of the 
earth's inhabitants who claim to be thy children, and 
keepers of thy commandments, I presume to remind 
thee of many things which I think should be done, not 
to augment my interests, but the happiness of thy 
universal family, Mankind. In the first place, I 
earnestly desire to inform thee that I am perfectly 
aware of thy omnipotent power, and of thy disposi- 
tion and habit of exercising the same at will. I gaze 
upon the greatness of earth, upon its mighty waters, 
upon the glorious sun, upon the bright stars with 
which thou hast written on the skies ; I look upon thy 
wide-spread family, and dare to call myself also one 
of thine ; and I behold everywhere wonderful displays 
of thy power and disposition to create and make 
alive. But from that combination of books which thy 
professed followers call the Holy Bible, I learn that 
thou residest in heaven, and yet that thou art a jealous, 
avenging, and revengeful God ; and from those pages 
I also learn that thou art a perfect Being, — infinite 
in Power, in Goodness, in Justice, in Mercy, and in 
Truth ; and that thou art Omniscient, Omnipotent, and 
Omnipresent. Pardon me then, I pray thee, Father 
if I venture to ask — why, being all goodness and all 
powerful, thou permittest Want, consequently Crime, 
and consequently Misery ? — Why permittest thou 



17 

War, Murder, Rapine, and Licentiousness ? — Why, 
Father ! if thou art disposed to render universal justice, 
why permittest thou the strong and powerful to 
enslave the weak and helpless, and thus to mar the 
form of humanity with prostitution and slavery ? If 
thou art special and local in thy providences and regu- 
lations, why art thou silent, and apparently impotent, 
when the lightning rushes impetuously through the 
heavens, and, in its darting from place to place, 
destroys buildings, (perhaps the poor man's only 
shelter,) and human life, and the beasts of the fields ? 
Why permittest thou destructive catastrophes, Famine, 
Disease, Sin, Death, and Everlasting Destruction ? If 
thou art all good and powerful, Father, why didst 
thou create me with attributes of justice, and capabili- 
ties of happiness, the very consciousness of which 
causes me to thank thee for my existence, and yet 
make me so unlike thyself, as thy character is revealed 
in thy partial government, and in the Book worshipped 
as thy word, that my instincts of benevolence are 
violated by thy, so called, special providences, and my 
conceptions of the principles of distributive goodness 
and equity, wounded by the manifestations of thy, so 
styled, justice. And, Father ! if the combination of 
books, written by different authors, who entertained 
dissimilar views of thee, and of thy government — one 
proclaiming thee to be " a jealous God/' another 
declaring that thou art a " God of love;" one exact- 
ing vengeance, — " an eye for an eye," — the other 
teaching forgiveness, and "Love ye one another," — 
Father, if this book be thy True Word, why are not 
a greater number of the nine hundred millions of the 
earth's inhabitants more acquainted with it, and 
2 * 



18 

obeying its commandments ? and, even among those 
few who acknowledge it to be thy word, why permit- 
test thou so much dissension and protestation ? 

Thy children ask thee for thy approbation and favors, 
Father ! as if thou wert not omniscient, as they teach 
me thou art; following, therefore, the example of these, 
named reverend teachers of righteousness, and of thy 
so called only Son, I pray thee to confer upon hu- 
manity, forthwith, the ability to behold Benevolence 
in thy benevolence, Justice in thy justice, Goodness 
in thy goodness, and Truth in thy word, whereso- 
ever that word may be found. I pray thee to remove 
Poverty, to remove Crime, to remove Misery. I pray 
thee not to manifest thy attributes of Jealousy and 
Vengeance upon thy defenceless and dependent chil- 
dren, because such visitations will not improve the' 
wicked, nor delight the truly righteous ; but rather, 
Father ! displace Sin with Good, Slavery with Jus- 
tice, Poverty with Plenty ; do this, and I know that 
thy wayward and sinful ones will then have time and 
cause to praise and bless thee, and the righteous will 
be glad. 

If thou hast, by voluntary volition, created the 
heavens and the earth, and if thou hast destroyed 
cities, led thy children to war, and cursed nations with 
famine and disease, by the special and local exercise of 
thy Almightiness ; then canst thou create vaster earths, 
and build cities, give peace unto the world, and spread 
it over with blooming health and smiling plenty. 
Grant, grant me this my supplication, — this, the fo'st 
request which I have ever presumed to proffer at thy 
throne. And may I not ask thee, Father of my vision ! 
— may I not ask thee why all things therein shown 



19 

me cause me to fear thee ? And may I not learn 
why, being good, and omnipotent, and so watchful 
over the elements of earth and human affairs as thy 
attributed special providences and local judgments seem 
to evince, why it is that thou wilt not do something as 
signal and as effectual toward removing Sin and Disease 
from the world, and thus converting Earth into Heaven ? 

gp ;jp ^ yfe ij$ 

The legitimate influence of a belief in Special Provi- 
dences, and consequently in the ability of man to move 
his Maker by prayer and supplication, was completely 
embodied in the foregoing invocation. The belief 
begat in me what it cannot but produce in the mind 
of every one who realizes it, namely — Fear, Discon- 
tent, Presumption, and dictatorial Prayer. 

Immediately upon concluding my address, I expe- 
rienced the evidences of coming vision throughout my 
entire system. In a few minutes my interior perceptions 
were opened, and I beheld the person of my internal 
and spiritual Guide. That his mission was to impart 
some important and consoling instruction to my half- 
distracted and exhausted spirit, I was absolutely certain. 
His brilliant body and radiant mind constituted a 
brighter sun than I had seen for several days. I was 
in the society of truth and good. When my interior 
condition was completely induced, and all my thoughts 
and perceptions were perfectly bestowed upon his 
glorious presence and mission, my Guide, fixing his 
sweet but positive expression of countenance upon my 
mind, thus addressed me: — " Thinkest thou, because 
the earth is twenty-five thousand miles in circumference, 
and because it is inhabited by nine hundred millions of 
individualities, that the Great Supreme Spirit is engaged 



20 

in particularly watching, specially influencing, and 
locally governing, that planet, its elements, and the 
people thereon ? Speak, thinkest thou these things ? " 
And I replied: "The earth, with its inhabitants, and 
the generally received evidences of special providences, 
were presented to me on the mount, in a vision, in a 
light more convincing of Divine interposition than ever 
was such doctrine taught by the aged and the educated 
about me in society/' The countenance of my Guide 
radiated with even sweeter expression, as he again 
spoke, and said: " Speak, thinkest thou that these 
things are true, as they seemed to thee ? " And I 
confessed my faith in special Providences by replying : 
"I acknowledge that I believe them." Whereupon 
my Guide threw the tranquillizing influence of his 
spirit over me, and, notwithstanding his manipulations, 
shut out the light of vision from my spiritual percep- 
tions, and did not open my natural eyes, yet I felt as 
one with him, and buoyant as air. In a few moments 
I was wholly unconscious. 

Anon, a sweet-toned and musical voice aroused me, 
and, with my consciousness, there came from the 
depths of my soul capabilities and powers which, pre- 
vious to this moment, I had not known. Once more I 
heard the voice, and he who spake said : " Behold !" 
and instantly my perceptions were opened, and I saw 
my glorious Guide, whose spacious forehead and up- 
turned eyes impressed me with the sublimest thought. 
Again he spoke, and bade me " turn and behold ! " 
I obeyed, and, standing side by side with him, Our 
faces in the same direction, I beheld the most mag- 
nificently gorgeous representation of creative power. 
It seemed that we stood before the stupendous heights 



21 

of the universe, upon a turret of the temple not made 
with hands ; surrounding us on every side were worlds 
innumerable, and yet how noiselessly, how harmo- 
niously, did they move around an unseen Parental 
Centre ! There was not a world whose magnitude 
did not transcend my even then exalted conceptions. 
Their sublime beauty exceeded all language, and their 
immeasurableness all known mathematical computa- 
tions. 0, what an overwhelming scene ! Infinity seemed 
wreathed with worlds, and every world was decorated 
with lesser worlds, like mighty flowers of unutterable 
grandeur. Each and all were flying through the bound- 
less realms of infinite space, with the velocity of the 
electric element, and yet they caused not so much 
sound as the ticking watch. Their speed was incon- 
ceivable, yet I could not see so much motion as there 
is in an insect's heart. I gazed beneath, and my per- 
ceptions enabled me to behold an awful depth, like 
unto a bottomless abyss. It was a sea of worlds, and 
so multitudinous were they, that in my attempts to 
obtain something like analogous numbers, I thought 
of all the drops of water on the earth, and yet the 
worlds of that sea were unnumbered. Again I thought 
of all the drops of water and grains of sand of which 
the earth is composed, and my Guide said : " Behold! 
thou hast now conceived of the myriads of worlds which 
are congregated in yon distant group." And I looked 
again, and beheld a deeper Depth, in a remote corner of 
which was that group of assembled worlds more numer- 
ous than all the atoms of our earth ; and with still 
expanding and improved perceptions, I gazed and 
gazed into the depths beneath, there beholding seas 
of worlds upon seas of worlds — systems of worlds 



22 

upon systems of worlds — and yet I saw no bottom to 
that awful, but supremely magnificent vortex ! I grew 
dizzy at the thought ; whereupon my Guide said : 
" Thinkest thou that we stand upon the pinnacle of the 
universal temple, and upon the topmost summit of the 
vast creation ?" And I replied, while trembling at 
the awful contemplation of the scene beneath, " I do." 
Continuing to gaze upon me with serene expression, 
and elevating his hand toward the heavens, he said : 
"Be strong, and behold!" Directed by him, my 
telescopic perceptions were turned on high, and I 
beheld with awe, and with an amazement which I can- 
not express, a vast ethereal concave, peopled with an 
endless concatenation of transcendingly magnificent 
Orbs or Worlds, too numerous to be conceived of, and 
too beautiful to be described with human language. 
Series, Groups, Degrees, and harmonious Organizations 
of Suns, Planets or Worlds, and Satellites, were visible 
everywhere ; and I could see no termination to the 
height, nor to the depth, nor to the length, nor to the 
breadth thereof. I saw that the stupendous Whole was 
without alpha and without omega ; it was infinite and 
universal ! 

The illimitable concavity, the interminable width, 
the bottomless vortex, the indescribable beauty, and 
the noiselessness of the mighty whole, overcame me 
with a dissolving sense of my own nothingness. I 
seemed to be losing my individuality, when my Guide 
thus addressed me : " Thinkest thou now of the great- 
ness of an Earth twenty-Jive thousand miles in circum- 
ference ? " 

I felt not a little rebuked, for I recalled what I had 
once conceived of the earth's magnitude, supposing it 



23 

of such great importance in the sight of its Creator, but 
I was moved to reply, " No, my celestial Guide ! I 
think of it no more — the greatness and magnificence 
of what I now see absorb the little Earth as the ocean 
drinks in the dew-drops. But now, speaking of the 
minute world, the Earth, I feel moved to inquire con- 
cerning its numerous inhabitants — are they not great 
and important in the sight of the Creator?" Imme- 
diately upon asking this question, the quality of my per- 
ceptions was changed ; instead of being diffusive and 
comprehensive, they were particular and penetrative, 
and thus ramified into immensity. " Behold/ ' spake my 
Guide, and he pointed to the infinite wreaths of worlds 
which had been shown me before, " behold, and realize 
the scene." I looked, and with amazement I saw that 
every world which was shining in those wreaths was an 
immense Earth, whose actual magnitude exceeds all 
measurement, and whose surface was peopled with the 
most elegant and celestial beings ; I saw them, male and 
female, and they were wonderfully beautiful, and not 
unlike the inhabitants of our earth, but they were infi- 
nitely more perfect and refined. And I could see gor- 
geous habitations — residences of exquisite grandeur, 
having architectural decorations and structural embel- 
lishments altogether too beautiful to be described. 
Gazing into such a world, beholding millions of inhab- 
itants so perfect, so symmetrical, and so harmonious, I 
could not but exclaim, in my intense delight, " Surely 
this is heaven, and these are angels ! " But my Guide 
quieted my enthusiasm by saying : " Thinkest thou now 
of the greatness and importance of nine hundred millions of 
individualities ? Thinkest thou now that they require 
and receive special attention? " Again I felt not a little 



24 

rebuked for having so magnified small things, and I 
replied : " In view of these myriads and myriads of 
human yet divine beings, kind Instructor ! I confess 
that my thought of Earth's inhabitants has passed into 
nothingness, like the winged ephemera; but in a vision 
I saw what seemed to me, at that time, positive evi- 
dences that the people of earth do receive special atten- 
tion from Him who created them." 

As I ceased speaking, an atmosphere of spiritual, 
mellow light suddenly enveloped my Guide ; and his 
countenance, though sweet and attractive, expressed an 
unusual positiveness of purpose, as he said : " Gather 
thy perceptions within thee ; open thy understanding 
and hear me. I employ thee as a vehicle to convey 
my instructions to the inhabitants of Earth, and what I 
impart thou shalt first understand, because the convinced 
understanding can speak as one having authority. I was 
near thee on the mountain during thy vision of partial 
or local Providences, and also when, as a representative 
of the most advanced theological and religious minds on 
Earth, thou prayedst to God for those blessings which 
thou didst need, in common with humanity. And 
when I perceived thy misapprehensions, and thy inter- 
rogatories, and thy importunities, I was impelled by 
the celestial spirit of fraternal love (which is guardian 
love) to convey thee to heights where I could bestow 
a gift which is more precious than all thou askedst 
for humanity, — the gift (/Wisdom! 

" When thou didst think of the Earth's greatness, I 
saw that a knowledge of the immense seas and realms 
of Creation would improve thy thoughts and under- 
standing. 

" When thou didst think upon the greatness and im- 



25 

pmiance of humanity about thee, in consequence 
whereof thou didst believe in required and received 
special benefits and punishments, I saw that a more 
enlarged view of the universal family would elevate thy 
mind unto the mounts of Wisdom. 

" When thou didst think that God would spread 
disease and destruction throughout cities and empires, 
and that his pleasure or displeasure could be mani- 
fested in answer to invocations, thoughts, prayers, or 
deeds, I saw that a more comprehensive and truthful 
understanding of his Character and Majesty would 
cause thee to rest, and not fear ', but LOVE HIM. 

" And perceiving that thy conceptions of the Supreme 
Spirit, his attributes, his government, or his local 
and fragmentary manifestations among men, were born 
of Ignorance, or were evidences that thy mind was 
suffering from a destitution of true knowledge, I there- 
fore resolved to convey thee where such conceptions 
cannot live, and where the causes of true knowledge 
reside in abundance.'' 

Here I felt impressed to inquire of my Guide, if he 
would present to me a view of the Earth and its inhab- 
itants, that I might the more vividly perceive the 
amazing contrast between that world and the scenes 
of infinity with which my mind was now filled. 

"Gather within thyself," he replied, "and I shall 
conduct thee thither." 

We passed over an inconceivable portion of infinite 
space, in what seemed but a few minutes, and arrived 
at a beautiful planet. 

" Behold," said he, pointing obliquely through the 
thin-orbed immensity, "behold, and realize the 
scene." I looked where he directed, and straining 
3 



26 

my perceptions in the unsuccessful effort to obtain a 
view of Earth, I was forced to exclaim: " 0, kind 
Instructor, I can see nothing !" And he answered : 
1 ' Behold, once more;" and instantly I saw, in the 
remotest distance, a small bright spot, which gradually 
grew more and more distinct, and I could perceive 
something like clouds upon it ; and as I continued to 
gaze, the clouds assumed the appearance of hills, 
divided by little streams of water. " There," said my 
Guide, pointing towards it, "you now see the Conti- 
nents, the Mountains, the Seas, the Lakes, and the 
Rivers of Earth." Still observing the planet, I saw 
accumulations of various forms and colors, — white, 
brown, black, and of a smoky appearance, — manifested 
in different directions ; and I saw numerous minute 
dark bodies issuing therefrom, going in and out, 
crossing and recrossing each other's paths, and some 
jostling one another. I was surprised at the appear- 
ance of such immense ant-beds or mole-hiils, as they 
seemed to me, and could not but exclaim to my 
Instructor, " Surely this is not the Earth!" But he 
replied : " Thou beholdest now the numerous villages, 
cities, inhabitants, conflicts, and the pugilistic battles 
of Earth." Sensations of humiliation, and some- 
what of dejection, crept over my spirit as these words 
were uttered by my kind but positive Guide. But 
continuing my observations, I saw, in every direction, 
and indistinctly appearing, numerous miniature build- 
ings of various construction. And in several of them 
I could perceive some of those same little dark bodies, 
which my Instructor had informed me were Earth's 
inhabitants. 

I was about to ask him concerning these buildings, so 



27 

indistinctly seen, when he said : " You now see the 
Churches, and the people who occupy them, in the 
most enlightened portions of the Earth.' ' At this 
announcement I was much astonished ; for I remem- 
bered that clergymen, and those who built and supported 
churches, believe and teach that their faith and works 
shine bright before God. I asked my Guide for the 
privilege of hearing what one of the many clergymen 
was at that moment saying. This was permitted me ; 
and, through the medium of my improved and concen- 
trated hearing, I listened and heard these words : — 
" We thank thee, Father, for the gift of thy Only 
Son, and for thy Holy Word. We thank thee for thy 
sacred promises, for thy protection, and for thy loving 
kindness ; and we pray that we may be led to seek 
salvation, through the sufferings, and the blood, (shed 
for us,) of thy only begotten Son." And instantly I 
could hear no more ; but that prayer awakened a 
renewed interest in what I had seen, in my vision on 
the mountain, concerning special providences ; the 
startling and external evidences of which, though I no 
longer believed them to have been rightly apprehended 
by me, seemed now to require an explanation. Where- 
upon, my Guide, instantly perceiving my thoughts, 
immediately replied to them, and said : 

" Thou art soon confounded by the falseness and 
imperfections of thy natural birth-place, (the Earth,) 
because thy understanding has yielded too much and 
too frequently to its superficial erudition and testi- 
mony ; and because also thy mind is not educated in 
the immutable principles of the Divine universal 
government. Thou desirest a knowledge of the inte- 
rior and true Causes of those externally represented 



28 

instances of Special Providences, the professed super- 
natural organ of which thou hast, in common with those 
about thee, sacredly believed. Listen, then, and I 
will explain to thee. 

" First. — Concerning the man who was rescued, 
and cured of his malady, from the moment he fell over 
the precipice, thou wilt perceive that the following 
causes were engaged : He was an ardent student, and, 
by pursuing his studies to an extreme deviation from 
the invariable laws of life and nature, his cerebral 
structure was thrown into a state of semi-paralysis. 
He was affected with that species of insanity known 
by physicians as Incoherence or Dementia ; the symp- 
toms of which are incoherence of ideas, forgetfulness, 
extravagant speeches and actions, attempts to accom- 
plish impossible things, &c; and, in this state of 
mind, he approached and fell over the precipice, as 
thou didst in thy vision witness. But the sudden and 
unexpected arrest of his falling body, owing to its coming 
in contact with a mass of woodbine, and the full 
realization of his perilous situation before assistance 
could reach him, so thoroughly revolutionized the 
circulation of the blood and spiritual life through his 
system, that the paralysis was removed, and hence he 
was instantly cured. Physicians are acquainted with 
parallel cases — instances where vigorous and healthy 
individuals have had their hair turned white, or been 
cured of disease, or have died in a few hours, by the 
sudden and unexpected announcement of distressing or 
joyful news. And if thou wilt ponder upon these 
things, numerous other instances will appear, each 
accompanied with their producing causes. 

" Second. — Concerning the saving of the beautiful 



29 

village, while destruction was surrounding it on every 
side ; know thou that the interior causes of this extraor- 
dinary circumstance are to be found in the situation 
of the strata upon which the village was built. The 
primary and secondary stratifications were so inter- 
locked and super-blended together, that, while other 
and different strata were rent and broken by the efforts 
of elements to regain an equilibrium between the inter- 
nal gases and the external atmosphere, (commonly 
Called earthquakes,) those strata upon which the vil- 
lage stood sustained no injury or disturbance. 

" Third. ■ — ■ Learn, that the condemned female was 
saved from death in the inquisitorial hall, because the 
executioner held a conductor of electricity in his hand. 
Thou rememberest that his sword was very bright; 
but for this superior magnet, the female might have as 
instantaneously experienced the same fate as did her 
executioner and other inmates of the temple. 

" Fourth. — The Earthquake, which occurred at the 
time the Romans crucified him whose name was Jesus, 
was a simple instance of coincidental or concurring 
circumstances. But thou must bear in mind this truth? 
that the external of anything is not the innermost 
reality ; because the development of anything is 
colored and exaggerated, or deformed and subverted, 
more or less, by those external influences by which 
the development is surrounded. Thus, the written 
account of this earthquake is greatly exaggerated and 
unreasonably stated among some of the inhabitants of 
the Earth. It has become a romance, not a reality, 
— not a fact, but a fiction ! Coincidences are of daily 
and hourly occurrence among the people ; not similar 
in sublimity, but equally as wonderful, — such as the 
3* 



30 

sudden stopping of a watch, or the breaking of a 
mirror, or the howling of the house-dog, or the going 
down of the sun, at the hour of a spirit's departure from 
the body. But the undeviating processes of Nature, and 
the ordinary, and sometimes marked, coincidental meeting 
of circumstances with those natural processes, furnish the 
true explanation of all local and extraordinary events 
which ever have or ever can occur. 

' £ Fifth. — -The sudden death of Ananias, while giving 
in a false oath, was occasioned by psychological and 
physiological causes, or rather by the mind acting 
violently upon matter. He had a disease of the heart, 
known by physicians as hypertrophy ; and, while 
making his deposition, the conflict was so great 
between interest and duty, between the consciousness 
of right and wrong ; between the effort to conceal his 
true thoughts, and to unhesitatingly speak false ones ; 
that his heart was unusually agitated, the blood regur- 
gitated into its chambers, and forthwith its operations 
ceased — and this is certain and immediate death. 
The heart is not always diseased when similar in- 
stances of sudden death occur ; sometimes mental 
excitement will burst cerebral veins, and cause 
instant extinction of life. 

" Sixth. — The crossing of the Red Sea on dry land 
is another illustration of Actionized facts, of realities 
changed to romance. The Children of Israel were 
enabled to cross the Red Sea on comparatively dry 
land, by having their escape from Eg} T pt predeter- 
mined and prearranged, thus : In one part of the Sea, 
there extended a bar, or miniature mountain of sand, 
which, during the recession of the tides, was com- 
pletely exposed to the heat of the sun. This exposure 



31 

generally continued for several hours. Bonaparte and 
his army once crossed upon this bar ; so did Alex- 
ander and his army ; so also did three Egyptian 
generals, accompanied by their armed hosts. It was 
by this passage that the tribes, under Moses, prede- 
termined to escape ; and, in order to render their 
emancipation from Pharaoh and slavery doubly certain, 
Moses calculated their departure from Egypt with 
sufficient precision to reach and cross the sea just in 
advance of the returning tides. Thus he was certain, 
that, if Pharaoh pursued with his hosts, for the purpose 
of recapturing the tribes, the tides would return, 
while the army was on the bar, and overwhelm them ; 
and his anticipations were fully realized. Thou seest, 
in this instance, how fortunate and extraordinary 
events are exaggerated by the benefited parties, as 
being the astonishing approval and particular dispen- 
sations of some attending Deity. 

" Seventh. — The diseased individual, who believed 
(as did the clergyman and people) that her sufferings 
were punishments imposed by God, that she might 
thereby exercise patience, and have wrought for her a 
i far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory/ 
was thus afflicted because she had lived in perpetual 
violation of the laws of Nature. Having wealth and 
servants in abundance, she was enabled to procure, 
and subsist upon, the most expensive and therefore the 
most unwholesome food ; the richest viands and 
cloying dainties ; whilst indulging in luxurious idle- 
ness, without occupation, and dressing in the most 
unnatural manner, enslaving the freedom of the body, 
and denying it its natural and absolutely required ex- 
ercise. And consequently, instead of experiencing 



32 

pain induced by foreign causes, she was reaping fruit 
according to the seed she herself had sown. 

" Eight. — Thebeautiful and precocious infant, which 
thou didst behold, was thus developed and early called 
away, by causes which were in operation previous to 
its birth. The mother had sustained no injury, no 
fright, no violation of Nature's reproductive laws ; but 
she possessed a particularly studious mind, and had 
been arduously engaged in intellectual cultivation and 
pursuits after knowledge. And the child was a repre- 
sentative of these peculiar circumstances (which is an 
issue or result invariably to be expected) ; and its 
spirit, being so prematurely developed, exhausted the 
deficient forces in its physical constitution, and a 
slight extrinsic cause produced its death. — I employ 
the language thou art accustomed to hear and use when 
speaking of a Spirit's departure from the body. 

" Ninth. — The youth who disobeyed his parents, 
and sought pleasure on what thou callest the ' Sabbath 
day,' was not drowned because of his disobedience, 
nor because the day was considered holy among the 
so styled enlightened minds of the earth ; but simply 
because he was on the water, and because the storm 
raged at that particular hour. Truth is simple and 
natural ; Error is compound and artificial. According 
to this propositional rule, I would have thee contrast 
what the people of the Earth said concerning the diso- 
bedient son, with what I have said concerning the 
causes of his death, and thou wilt most surely see 
yjhich is the simple, and which is the compound, and how 
to distinguish truth from error. 

" Tenth. — The affirmations of the Clergyman will 
appear to thee as weak and almost inexcusably unrea- 



33 

sonable when I inform thee that the young and inter- 
esting daughter, instead of having been removed from 
her parents and the earth by a special Providence, 
was herself the cause of her death. She had a consti- 
tutional predisposition to uterine neuralgia ; and, by 
frequently exhausting her system with dancing, and 
by dressing herself in apparel wholly inconsistent with 
the atmospherical temperature and with her state of 
physical depletion, she acquired a severe cold ; this 
induced inflammation and neuralgia, which, not being 
relieved, resulted in vital mortification/' 

The easy and natural manner in which my Guide 
explained the various instances of seeming special Prov- 
idences, which I had witnessed in my vision on the 
mount, caused me to exclaim : " 0, kind Instructor ! 
my understanding gladly drinks in thy explanations ;. 
but I am educated, on the Earth, to believe that what 
delighteth the understanding is frequently fatal to the eter- 
nal interests of the soul — wilt thou instruct me in this ? " 
As I spoke this request, the Earth disappeared from 
my view, and I turned to look at and again to question 
my Guide, when he said: "Dost thou remember the 
innumerable and Immortal Orbs thou hast seen ? 
Dost thou remember the myriads of Seas of Worlds, 
whose tides flow so noiselessly through the boundless, 
interminable Realms of Infinity ? Dost thou remem- 
ber the unutterable grandeur, the inconceivable har- 
mony, and the magnificent display of Infinite Love and 
Wisdom ? Eememberest thou all this ? If thou dost 
remember, then will I disclose to thee another Truth, 
— then will I reveal to thee that thou hast not gazed 
upon the Works of God from the Heights of its Uni- 
verse, nor from a Turret of the Infinite Temple. 



34 

Learn that thou hast but stood witn me within the 
spacious Vestibule, and there contemplated only an 
infinitesimal portion of the Greatness, the Harmony, 
and Grandeur of the Universe. Those dazzlingly 
brilliant and supremely beautiful worlds, to behold 
which drew from thy spirit expressions of delight and 
amazement — causing thee to exclaim, f This is Heav- 
en!' — they are but planets, and their inhabitants — 
those spiritually exalted and magnificently harmonious 
beings, whom you gazed upon with wonder, raptur- 
ously calling them 'Angels ! ' — they are but Men and 
Women, in mind and body constructed upon the same 
musical principles as develop the human sexes on the 
Earth. Thou hast seen nothing compared with that 
which is still unseen — nor couldst thou as yet have 
conceived, from all thou hast beheld, one thought 
worthy to be termed an idea of God. What thinkest 
thou, therefore, now of thy doctrinal education on the 
Earth? How seemeth to thee the most enlightened 
teachers there ? Hast thou now still remaining upon 
thy mind a fear that He who lives through and sus- 
tains, and harmonizes, and perfects, the million-fold 
of Universes and all their vast possessions — I say, 
fearest thou that such a Being could or would make a 
group of human spirits so imperfect as to cause the 
heart and understanding to war with one another ? — 
and I ask of thee, canst thou still, for one moment, 
believe that such a Being is engaged in causing Wars, 
Pestilences, Devastations, and the numerous other Ills 
which the inhabitants of Earth have not yet learned to 
prevent — the Evils they have not outgrown ? And 
thinkest thou that the Great Moving Principle of the 
Universal Revolving Heavens is to be importuned to 






35 

abolish those ills, to remove Poverty, Crime, Slavery, 
and Disease — to cure those Evils which are of human 
origin, and must die where they originated ? I tell thee 
nay! The Great Living Principle — the Great Living- 
Cause — the Great Living Father of all Worlds, and 
of their countless inhabitants, moves His Universe by 
Unchangeable, Immutable, and Impartial Laws ! He 
creates no World, no Spirit, no Circumstance, by any 
other than General Principles ; and therefore He dis- 
penses no Partial Blessings or Curses in the Eternal 
Empire of His universal Government. " 

Silence, submission, and conviction, pervaded and 
penetrated my entire soul ; and I only found words to 
reply : " I will remember — I will communicate what 
I have seen and heard." 

"Then," said my Instructor, " gather thy percep-" 
tions and living powers within thee." I instantly 
obeyed, and I experienced the sweet, tranquillizing 
influence of his Spirit so thoroughly that a deep sleep 
came over me, even to entire unconsciousness. Again 
I was awakened by the music of his voice. I was still 
in the state I name rny superior condition, and my 
Guide said: "Thou art again on the Earth, in the 
grove, under those trees where thou didst pray to 
God for instruction ; henceforth, when Ignorance and 
Error, Superstition and Prejudice, arise mountain high 
before thee, and seem about to crush thee, — then 
remember! — remember what thou hast seen — re- 
member then that thou hast stood upon sublime and 
stupendous heights, and upon eternal elevations, which, 
led by pure Wisdom, all human Spirits may attain! 
and whenever Earth's Theologies and Religions, those 
phantoms of the people, arise like shadows before 



36 

thee — then remember that thou hast read the Title 
Page of the True Word, and that thou hast entered 
the Vestibule of the Divine and Universal Temple — 
the " Temple not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens!" 

There was silence around, and holy stillness. My 
Guide said no more. The magnetic influence of his 
Spirit passed gradually away, and I returned to my 
natural condition. As I pursued my walk homeward, 
my heart was filled with happiness and contentment. 
The night had come on, and it was dark to the physi- 
cal eyes. But the Sun-light of an Infinite and Eternal 
Day shone brightly through the now unfolded portions 
of my Immortal Soul ; and by that Light which knows 
no darkness, I had learned not to Fear but to Love the 
Supreme Principle ! 

THE ARGUMENT. 

That the Deity bestows particular attention upon 
the Earth and its inhabitants, is an opinion which has 
been long and universally entertained by mankind. 
The Indian loves to believe that his tribe and lands 
were bequeathed by the over-ruling Sachem ; that all 
his hunting excursions and achievements on the battle- 
field are rendered victorious in consequence of that 
Power's supreme approval. The Savage, the Barba- 
rian and the Patriarch, are equally impressed with a 
corresponding conviction; but as individual and na- 
tional experiences accumulate, and the principles of 
scientific research and civilization are unfolded, the 
Savage and Barbarian opinions become refined, sys- 
tematized, and comparatively sublimated. In evidence 



37 

of this statement, I refer the reader to the fact, that, 
instead of the crude and petty manifestations of Su- 
preme attention, recognized by the Indian, we find 
the sublimer and more dignified exhibitions of Divine 
design and power, in the writings and opinions of 
modern Patriarchs, Priests, and Teachers. These 
confine their attention not so much to the mere forma- 
tion of our globe, as to the marvellous and sublime 
manifestations of Power and Purpose, which they pro- 
fess to recognize as proceeding from the Deity to his 
children on the Earth some hundreds of years ago. 
Thus, they recognize special and immediate interpo- 
sitions of God in the birth and finding of Moses ; in 
the captivity, escape, and multifarious experiences of 
the tribes under his control; in his enlightenment, in 
his miracles, in his commandments, and in his prin-" 
ciples of government ; and in all that the various 
Prophets were enabled to perform; and in the birth 
of Jesus too, in his incarnation, in his life, in his teach- 
ings, in his miracles, and in the kind of death which 
he ultimately experienced ; and also in the endow- 
ments and incarnations of Prophet, Apostle, Pope, 
Priest, Bishop ; and in the supreme and absolute 
authority invested in the Holy Bible by the institution 
of the sacred Canon. Thus Patriarchs and modern 
Teachers have advanced and enlarged upon the convic- 
tions of the Indian, who only sees the particular favor 
of the Deity in his successful hunting, and victorious 
battles. 

The origin of the belief under consideration may be 

primarily traced to ignorance. It is unreasonable to 

expect that any individual can have a more expansive 

view of God than the Indian or Patriarch, if he is 

4 



38 

likewise persuaded that the Earth is the centre of 
Creation, and that its inhabitants are the particular 
children of the Creator. Those who acknowledge a 
belief in supernatural manifestations, or Special Prov- 
idences, have somewhere in the mind a defective 
understanding of the Deity and his works. 

But the belief in Special Providences has also a 
secondary origin in Desire. Some nations and indi- 
y viduals have a powerful desire to be considered par- 

ticularly important and righteous in the sight of the 
Creator. It is gratifying and supporting to some pecu- 
liarly constructed minds, to think themselves divinely 
favored, divinely commissioned, divinely endowed; to 
believe themselves to be the chosen few particularly 
in the possession of a "high calling;" and thus actu- 
ated, such individuals, by first deceiving others, for 
the purpose of receiving the approbation and emolu- 
ments consequent upon such positions and endowments, 
ultimately deceive themselves. I once came in con- 
tact with an individual whose love of distinction, 
approbation, notoriety, and personal power, were so 
strong, and so predominated over his imperfectly 
developed attributes of prudence and conscientious- 
ness, that he was moved to set himself up as the Jews' 
Messiah. At first it was but pretension ; but at last 
he himself earnestly believed it ; and did many things 
in demonstration of what he supposed to be his pecu- 
liar and personal mission to that unadvanced and dis- 
united people. But the belief we are considering can 
also be traced to Education ; therefore, ignorance, and 
doctrinal education, (which is mainly ignorance subli- 
mated,) and desire, are, in numerous forms and states of 
combination, the causes of a belief in Special or Im- 
mediate Providences. 



39 

There is, however, a belief of the understanding, in 
the local and universal government of God, which is 
adequate to supply every demand of the pure and 
reasonable intellect. And this is the belief in the 
Perfection, the Unchangeableness, and in the Univer- 
sality of the Principles of Divine Government and Leg- 
islation. These Principles are so admirably arranged 
as to comprehend, protect and govern, the Mighty 
Orb, the "falling Sparrow," the insect's Eye, and the 
human Soul. These principles are simply the rules 
or modes by which the Great Moving Principle governs 
the Universe, and bestows his universal care and 
blessings upon all created things. These Laws, by 
which He thus governs, are so unchangeable and per- 
fect as to render supernatural manifestations both 
useless and positively impossible. 

The miracle of changing water into wine, attributed 
to Jesus, is in direct opposition to the established laws 
of fluids and gases ; and again, the miracle of the res- 
toration of Lazarus to life and health, subsequently to 
the death and decomposition of his body, is in positive 
antagonism to the determined laws of life and organiza- 
tion ; and so, likewise, the miraculous birth of Jesus is 
no less a positive violation of the immutable laws of 
reproduction and procreation. 

The proof that these exhibitions of Special Provi- 
dences never did occur precisely as they are related, 
is to be found in the fact that the Deity and his Laws 
are perfect and unchangeable. But, it may be said, that 
these miracles were performed according to preor- 
dained but previously inactive laws, which laws were 
called into effect, for the first time, when and where 
those miracles were wrought ; and it may also be said, 



40 

that the Deity, " knowing the End even from the 
Beginning," did, in order to bring about these as- 
tounding developments of might and design, institute 
and make an eternal provision for the special action of 
a set of principles, which, previous or subsequent to 
the birth of Jesus, were not intended to be brought 
into requisition. This hypothesis, entertained by the 
most intelligent theologians throughout Christendom, 
is refuted upon the ground that the Deity is an unal- 
terable Being ; that his laws are proofs of his unchange- 
ableness, and, consequently, that he cannot make a 
set of laws for one age of the world, which in their 
action will develop effects in direct opposition to his 
universally established modes of being and doing in 
every other age. For, should it be admitted that God 
acted at one period in positive violation or contradic- 
tion of his works in every other period, then are the 
unchangeableness and the integrity of his character 
impeached, and all true confidence in his Infinite 
Perfection shaken and unsettled. 

But again it may be urged, that God is All-power- 
ful, and that he, therefore, can at pleasure suspend, 
transcend, or destroy any set of Laws which originated 
with him ; and that the miracles attributed to Jesus and 
others, together with the many instances of Divine special 
attention and interposition, recorded on the pages 
of profane and ecclesiastical history, were developed 
and performed, not by violating, but by suspending or 
transcending the operation of those Laws which are 
found to be, at other times, undeviating throughout 
Nature. To this again the reply is, that the Perfec- 
tion and Unchangeableness of the Laws of the Deity 
render those miracles and divine interpositions both 



41 

useless and impossible. And, furthermore, it is not to 
be, for one moment, admitted that the Deity did create 
those Laws which operate so consistently throughout 
the illimitable Universe. 

The Laws of Nature, like Nature itself and the 
human soul, were not created by the Deity, but were 
and are the spontaneous attributes of his divine Exist- 
ence and Constitution. In other words, they are the 
inevitable and indispensable developments of the 
Divine Essence. Hence I affirm that the Deity did 
no more create the Laws of Nature than did they 
create him ; they are simply the outer manifestations 
of the internal essential principles which constitute 
his existence and Organization ; and consequently, 
the Deity and his Laws are equally beyond the pos- 
sibility of being changed, suspended, transcended, or de- 
stroyed. All arguments concerning the possibility of 
special providences, or of supernatural manifestations and 
miracles of any character or extent, which are claimed 
and believed by many nations, sects, and individuals, 
can have their intrinsic value summarily determined 
by the syllogistic form of demonstration : Thus — 

1st Proposition. — Joshua claimed to have commanded 
and caused the Sun and Moon to stand still for several 
hours. 

2nd Proposition. — The Deity and his Laws are 
unchangeable. 

3rd, Conclusion. — Therefore, Joshua was either de- 
ceiving or deceived. 

And again, — 

1st Proposition. — Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and 
modern Christian religious teachers, claim for Jesus a 
4* 



42 

supernatural birth, and a supernatural power of ivorking 
astonishing miracles. 

2nd Proposition. — The Laws of Nature are beyond 
the possibility of being changed, suspended, transcended, or 
destroyed. 

3rd, Conclusion. — Therefore, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John were mistaken, and modern Christian religious 
Teachers are deceived. 

The consoling belief which flows from the under- 
standing into the affections, and which is capable of 
satisfying the reasonable demands of the soul, is a 
belief that God is perfect and unchangeable ; that he 
lives through all things, and has made life, harmony, 
and happiness, attainable to all. When the human mind 
conceives and believes that God is impartial, and that 
he displays his natural and harmonious attributes 
throughout Nature, and in the deepest recesses of the 
Soul, then it will rest and be happy. An individual, thus 
believing, is perfectly invincible to the invasions and 
tirades of that fallacious education, and hereditary 
prejudice, w T hich exist in the world. The convinced 
soul is not disturbed by every " word of doctrine ;" it 
is not moved by the preaching of miraculous manifes- 
tations, as demonstrating the divine commission of any 
man ; nor can the doctrines of physical resurrection, or 
final judgment, or eternal condemnation, or any other 
absurdity and fallacy of the popular schools, affect the 
convinced understanding ; for such know that God is 
an Eternal Magnet of concentrated Goodness, and that 
man's pathway is eternally onward and upward to the 
Supreme Attraction. 

God is sufficiently minute, local, and immediate, in his 
providences, to impart life and beauty to everything 



43 

throughout the innumerable ramifications of infinite 
Creation. He possesses within himself the principles 
of all Motion, all Life, all Sensation, and all Intel- 
ligence. He is the Infinite Germ of the Great Uni- 
versal Tree of Causation; and according to the abso- 
luteness of self-existence, and consequent necessity* 
his celestial essences and essential principles unfold 
and flow, with the minutest precision, into the smallest 
atoms and organizations in nature. 

It is not good, nor is it true or elevating, to believe 
that God originally designed and instituted an endless 
succession of consecutive causes and effects for the 
express purpose of giving birth to just such an organ- 
ization as Jesus had, or such as any other individual 
may possess. But it is very good and righteous to 
believe that God unfolds and develops, from out of the 
inexhaustible plenitude of his Infinite Life and consti- 
tution, a vast combination of Laws and Elements 
which will go on eternally, elaborating human spirits, 
and will continue to improve and perfect them more 
and more in proportion as the circumstances of birth, 
of climate, of education and government, advance 
toward intellectual development and individual perfec- 
tion. Hence it is unreasonable and unrighteous to 
believe that God takes special notice of those numerous 
transgressions, by which individuals only injure and 
experimentally educate themselves. Nor is it good to 
believe that God exerts his omnipotent power, with 
the express design of arresting the action of physical 
laws or elements, or to send rain, or to bestow special 
endowments, or signal privileges, or particular gratifi- 
cations, in answer to the prayers of the, so styled, 
righteous. For such a belief would be admitting God 



44 

to be a " respecter of persons/' and also the cause of 
inconceivable injustices and injuries to some — yea, it 
would be making him a mutable Being. 

Let us think of this proposition, — let us consider, 
that, any clergyman, (it may be the present Pope 
Pius,) thought by many to be a righteous man, — sup- 
pose he prays for the protection of the king, for the 
enrichment of the kingdom, and for the perpetuation 
of a monarchial or theocratical system of government. 
And suppose that at the same time, a representative 
of the people prays as fervently for the downfall of the 
king, and for the establishment of a republic instead 
of a kingdom. Of course, these opposing supplica- 
tions are addressed to one and the same God. Now 
if the Deity who rules the universe should grant the 
prayer of one of these individuals, the desires of the 
other would necessarily be ungratified, — his particu- 
lar favor bestowed upon the one party would perhaps 
result in immense evils to the other. Again, a 
righteous man, living upon the mountain side, may 
earnestly pray for rain, to cause his fruit-trees and 
agricultural productions to yield abundantly ; whilst 
another equally righteous man, living in the valley 
beneath, having already had a great supply of rain 
upon his farm, in consequence of water accumulating 
in his springs from off the adjacent hills, and knowing 
that any more, just then, would injure his forthcoming 
crops, he therefore earnestly prays to God for fair 
weather. Now if the prayer of the one be granted, 
the other will sustain great injury in his pecuniary 
interests, and so, vice versa. Hence, to be just and 
impartial, God must exist and govern according to 
universal and unchangeable principles. 



45 

In considering special and universal providences 
with a belief of the understanding, the highest and 
greatest comfort flowing therefrom is based upon the 
glorious and already (to me) demonstrated truth > that 
our earth is environed by a Spiritual World. And not 
only is our earth thus surrounded, but so likewise are 
all the earths or planets belonging to our solar system. 
In truth, there is a great sphere of spiritual existences, 
which, touching it, girdle the material sphere, a part 
of which we are at present existing in ; and again, en- 
circling that sphere, are a galaxy of greater spheres, 
more refined and more magnificent ; which are in- 
habited by spirits, drawn onward by the eternal 
magnet of Supreme Goodness. Thus there is a chain 
extending from man to Deity ! And all that we can 
desire in the form of attention and dispensation is 
abundantly supplied, and handed down to us, by and 
through the spiritual inhabitants of higher spheres, the 
links in that chain of Love ! 

The human soul is constructed upon musical prin- 
ciples, which impart to it a constitutional tendency 
toward harmony and happiness. The various attrac- 
tions to which its tones respond are Self-love, Conju- 
gal-love, Parental-love, Fraternal-love, Filial-love, 
and Universal-love. But what I desire to impress 
here is, that these Loves are innate affinities which 
draw soul to soul ; which cause the human mind to 
feel attracted to corresponding loves or affinities in other 
minds, without reference to time, space, age, position, 
education or circumstances. Therefore, should con- 
jugal-love prompt an individual soul to pray for conju- 
gal association, and should that soul's true associate 
reside in the Spiritual World, it is almost certain that 



46 

the prayer of the yearning heart on earth will be cer- 
tainly answered by the spirit, which is impelled by 
this irresistible attraction to seek its true companion. 
But here let it be remembered that all spirits and 
angels were once men ; lived in physical organizations 
as we do ; and died, as we die, previous to their de- 
parture for the spirit-home. And we all have relatives 
there — parents, sisters, and brothers, perhaps, and 
also relatives according to spiritual affinities. And the 
Spirit World is not far off; it is very near, around and 
above us at all times ; and that which was truly joined 
here is not separated there ; death does not divide, 
nor does it remove the loved ones beyond the reach of 
the spirit's desires or prayers. As conjugal-love is 
answered by some spirit having a corresponding at- 
traction, so are other loves responded to by corre- 
sponding loves ; and thus there proceeds to us, and 
that not unfrequently, a vast variety of good sugges- 
tions and righteous impulses, from some of our natural 
or spiritual relatives who now reside in higher spheres. 
And thus, too, when the soul is earnestly praying 
for knowledge whereby to direct social government, 
or for light upon the great problem of reorganizing 
and harmonizing society, it is perfectly safe and rea- 
sonable to believe that the noble spirits who have lived 
among us on the earth, and who are now particularly 
educated in these questions, draw nigh, and, perhaps, 
insinuate some valuable thoughts into the under- 
standing of the praying spirit, — this would be a 
response to the fraternal-love, or the love of the 
neighbor. Hence we may truthfully say that Provi- 
dence imparts special information — not by direct and 
immediate design, but by the operation of those natural 



47 

and unchangeable laws whereby are governed the uni- 
versal combinations of Mind and Matter. Spiritual 
intercourse is developed and rendered universally 
practicable by the Law of Association, or by the Law 
of Affinities. Therefore, whoever should truthfully and 
sincerely desire or pray for light upon governmental 
and social subjects, whereby to reform society and 
develop harmony among men, he would, probably, if 
susceptible to interior impressions, receive something, it 
might be, from the now educated Moses — or Lycurgus 
— or Solon — or Plato ; for each of these individuals 
had their fraternal-love considerably developed and 
rudimentally educated by the friction of social and 
other circumstances previous to their departure for 
the Superior Country. So also, should any individual 
earnestly seek to be enlightened concerning spiritual 
and religious truths ; should he pray to know more 
of God and the Universe, it is more than possible, it 
is probable, that the now advanced Paul — or David — 
or John — or Fenelon — or some departed relative, 
having the filial-love fully developed and in constant 
exercise, would impart sweet instructions, and satisfy 
the inquirer. 

I desire the reader to seek an illustration and con- 
firmation of this fact by disciplining and unfolding the 
mind to the influx of spiritual impressions. 

Responses from the Spirit World will never be con- 
flicting ; and, therefore, should an individual pray and 
receive what he considers a reply, and should this 
reply contradict what others have said or revealed, 
then the only criterion by which to judge of its truth 
or falsehood is the unfailing standard of Nature and 
Reason. For instance — if a person should affirm, 



48 

after earnestly praying, or while in what is modernly 
termed the magnetic state, that he had heard or per- 
ceived that the sun and moon were stationary during 
the period assigned by Joshua, then the statement 
must be tested by Nature, and Nature must be tested 
by Reason. Again, if an individual (Emanuel Swe- 
denborg or Jacob Beman, for instance) should affirm 
that he perceived in the Spiritual World that the Bible 
is the Word of God — that it is a sacred embodiment 
of Truth — that it contains no errors — then the truth- 
fulness of such an affirmation must be tested by refer- 
ring it to the unchangeable and immeasurable Standard 
of Nature and Reason — thus : 

1. The Bible is affirmed to be all true. 

2. Joshua's miracle is recorded in the Bible, which is 
not true. 

3. Conclusion— The affirmation is false. 

Nature and Reason are the only mathematicians 
who can perfectly demonstrate and unfailingly exhibit 
the true or false character of every statement which 
the profoundly ignorant, as well as the educated mind, 
may be moved to make, under any conceivable cir- 
cumstances. 

The embracing nearness of the Spiritual World, 
and its accessibleness, furnishes the spirit with every 
advantage and gratification it should desire, through 
the mediums of providential dispensations or Divine 
interposition. But if the ambitious and aspiring Chris- 
tian heart is dissatisfied with the mediate and indirect 
manner in which its prayers to God are answered — - 
dissatisfied because the Deity himself does not more 
directly hearken to its invocations, then I desire to im- 
press that heart with this truth : that no human spirit 



49 

has yet conceived a thought, or uttered a word, as 
it conceives of the Father, sufficiently magnanimous, 
sublime, or expressive, to be applied to even one of 
the glorious individuals, who, though once a resident 
upon some Earth, now treads the beautiful paths and 
flowering valleys of the Spirit Home. 

Think not, because God is so inconceivable in his 
Greatness, so elevated above special prayer, and 
special action, that he is far removed from our spirits 
— no, he 

" Lives in the soul, informs our mortal part, 
As full, as perfect in a hair as heart ; 
As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns, 
As in the rapt seraph that adores and burns." 

And so near is he, that in him we daily and hourly 
" live, move, and have our being," — we are in him 
and of him, and as the body, branches, twigs, leaves, buds, 
blossoms and fruit of a tree are unfolded and minutely 
developed from the essences and beginning principles 
which were originally deposited in its Germ, so does 
the Great Germinal Essence of the Universal Tree 
unfold and develop the minutest branches, buds, blossoms, 
and organizations, which perfume and adorn the Stu- 
pendous Whole. 

If a particular bud, or a chosen number of buds, 
should set up a claim to special blessings and atten- 
tions, and should they invoke and adjure the Germ to 
dispense a large share of its life and fluids to them, the 
other buds may remain perfectly satisfied that justice will 
preside over every dispensation of the moving principle 
which gave them birth. So, likewise, should any 
individual, or class of individuals, make pretensions to 
righteousness in consequence whereof they presume 
5 



50 

to invoke, importune, and adjure the Deity to grant 
them special, immediate, and eternal favors, other indi- 
viduals may rest perfectly satisfied that the Deity and 
his Laws are Equal, beyond the possibility of Chance, 
Suspension, or Separation; and hence, that Eternal 
Justice will preside over the distribution of Divine life 
and happiness to every flower and spirit, to every atom 
and seraph, that has an existence anywhere in the wide- 
spread gardens of God ! 



Having ascertained that the Laws of Nature are un- 
changeable, and that the Deity never alters his mode 
of being, we may now, by way of an application of 
these Truths, inquire — 

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE SIN AGAINST THE 
HOLY GHOST? 

The sin against the Holy Ghost, which is generally 
understood as being the unpardonable sin, is suscep- 
tible of a more reasonable interpretation than the 
learned scholars of early centuries, and the biblical 
commentators of modern times, have bestowed upon 
it. This question of the unpardonable sin has agi- 
tated many noble and educated minds ; and it is not 
unlikely that it has confounded and frightened many 
honest and timid minds who have searched the primi- 
tive history for truths and everlasting life. But those 
clergymen and commentators who have inquired con- 
cerning the true meaning of this passage in the Bible, 
have been thoroughly satisfied, I believe, that it was a 
sin they never had themselves committed. If it ever 
was committed, they think the sin is certainly chargeable 
upon some neighbor, or a certain class of individuals. 



51 

Athanasius believed it was chargeable upon the 
Pharisees, for their contempt of Christ and his works, 
which they maliciously and wickedly imputed to the 
agency of the Devil, being at the same time fully 
persuaded that those works were performed in a good 
spirit ; and in this imputation is an implicit disbelief in 
Christ's divine and supernatural origin ; thus consti- 
tuting, in the mind of a believer in supernatural and 
mysterious things, a most formidable sin, one too 
intrinsically evil to be forgiven. 

The difference between a sin against the Holy Ghost 
and a sin of ignorance, of forgetfulness, of neglect, of 
inadvertency, and other minor sins against positive or 
negative precepts and customs, consists in the former 
sin being totally unpardonable, and the latter sin being 
possible to forgive until seventy times seven. But, I 
think it will appear to those who are accustomed to 
the employment of their reason, that the punishment 
which is generally affixed to the commission of the 
unpardonable sin is entirely at variance with those fair 
proportions which always characterize the principles 
of justice and truth. 

The relation between this crime and its punishment 
is no more consistent, just, or intimate, than burning 
a member of the body, or sowing seed, in America, and 
feeling the pain, or reaping the harvest, in England. 
Nor are we to suppose that an individual, who (com- 
pared with the infinite Creator) is but a finite and 
almost insignificant creature, can possibly commit a 
crime which will be attended with eternal conse- 
quences. For, let it be thoroughly impressed, that the 
human mind can no more break or mar one of the eter- 
nal Laws of Nature than it can render the Deity imper- 



52 

feet or unhappy! To believe that God will punish in- 
finitely human beings for any finite transaction is to 
believe that God is unjust — yea, even according to 
human principles of goodness and equity. Any 
punishment, to be just, must be proportionate to the 
magnitude of the transgression ; and, therefore, the 
idea of an individual being punished with an ever- 
lasting punishment for that sin, which (according to 
true philosophy) is only an injury done to himself, is 
an idea only suitable to the barren mind of the barba- 
rian. 

But the true explanation of the idea of an unpardon- 
able sin, (which idea I am willing should remain 
clothed in the terms, "sin against the Holy Ghost/') 
is now deemed necessary. 

The terms Holy Ghost are applied, in theology, 
almost exclusively to the third person in the Godhead, 
but this furnishes no clue to a proper interpretation of 
the idea. The idea is simply as follows : — 

The Great Positive Mind lives, moves, and governs, 
in the vast universe of mind and matter, according to 
certain fixed laws or rules, which constitute the Holy 
Ghost, or Excellent Laws that proceed from his Spirit 
into All things. The term Holy signifies excellent; 
and the term Ghost signifies law or laws. The indi- 
vidual is always under the control of three laws, which 
laws operate with an undeviating precision in his 
physical system, in his social relations, and in his 
moral and spiritual connections, to the world without, 
and to the world within him. These laws require the 
individual to be harmonious in his physical organiza- 
tion, harmonious in his social system, and in his mind. 
Indeed, a perfectly healthy body, and situation, and 



53 

mind, are absolutely demanded by the Holy Ghost, or 
Excellent Laws of our being. Inasmuch as we are 
governed by, and are only happy and harmonious 
when obeying, the 'principles of our entire existence, it 
is plain that any deviation from them would result in 
discord and unhappiness, to an extent always propor- 
tionate to the extent of the deviation ; and let it be 
fully and indelibly impressed upon the mind, that there 
is no possible way of escaping the legitimate and entire con- 
sequences of any infringement upon the operation of these 
Natural or Divine Laws. If you violate the laws of 
digestion, of gravitation, of reproduction, of locomo- 
tion, or of any of the functions of the body or mind, or 
any of the natural relations which subsist between 
individuals in society, you will receive the legitimate 
consequences of your violation, and there is no other 
atonement. 

The answer to the question under consideration 
naturally comes in at this point. It is this : 

An infringement upon the operation of Nature's 
Laws cannot be forgiven, but must be settled by the 
individual's suffering the consequences of the infringe- 
ment. In other words, a sin against the Holy Ghost, 
or against Natural Laws, cannot be forgiven — cannot 
be pardoned — cannot be mitigated — cannot be aug- 
mented, but must be settled by a full and complete 
experience of consequences, according to the nature 
and extent of the sin. 

It may be supposed that an individual is punished, 
not according to what he has done, but according to 
what he intended to do. If this opinion is entertained 
with reference to the commission of the unpardonable 
sin, and in justification of the eternal punishment of 
5* 



54 

the individual who commits it, then I would refer such 
a believer, for a full refutation of his opinion, to those 
laws by which we are unerringly governed. If an 
individual intends to burn his whole body, and only 
burns a finger, he does not suffer for what he intended 
to do, but for what he did do, to his physical system. 
Should an individual intend to murder a neighborhood, 
but, failing to accomplish his original design, only 
causes the death of one person, then he does not suffer 
for what he did, but for what he inwardly believes, or 
feels, to be the intrinsic evil of his intentions. The 
deed which would make a civilized man unhappy, 
would render an Indian joyful. A man is punished by 
the physical laws for what he does, and by the moral 
laws, for what he conceives to be the real wickedness 
of his intentions. But when the wicked intention 
ceases to inhabit the chambers of the mind, then the 
individual is no longer committing sin, and is, conse- 
quently, no longer punished. The punishments con- 
sequent upon evil intentions are exclusively experi- 
enced by the individual intending evil ; and the causes 
of his suffering are to be found in those inordinate 
desires or actions which generate discord in his in- 
harmonious nature. Thus, anything which produces 
discord in the physical, or social, or moral systems of 
our being, will cause us to suffer a physical, social, or 
moral punishment, and such punishment is always in 
proportion to the extent and character of the disturb- 
ance produced. But, inasmuch as the primary causes 
of these disturbances are hereditary, educational, and 
circumstantial, it therefore follows that when these 
causes cease to exist, these disturbances will also 
cease to exist ; and hence there will not be a per- 



55 

petuation of effects or punishments throughout the 
length and breadth of eternity, as clergymen generally 
affirm. Now what it is well to believe is, that every 
infringement upon the physical or moral laws of our 
being will be followed by its appropriate conse- 
quences — and from them there is no escape. Therefore, 
such infringements are sins against the Holy Ghost, 
and should every Christian in existence be executed 
upon a cross, it would not lessen a single pang, or 
save the individual from the legitimate effects of such 
righteous and efficient causes. 



THE END, 






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HAS FOR SALE : 

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MR. DAVIS'S jN t EW WORK. 

Mr. Davis is now engaged in the composition of a work, the general title of 
which will be " The Great Harmonia." It is to consist of a series of vol- 
umes, each of which will have a bearing on some particular subject. For in- 
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another to Theology, to Spiritual Visions, to Human Progress, to Social Reform- 
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concerning which his spirit is duly impressed. 

The first volume of the series is to be entitled "The Physician," and is now 
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